Let Spring Hold you Now
You are likely reading this post from inside a home or office that is beginning to feel too familiar and too stifling during these days of distancing ourselves from one another in order to avoid sharing deadly virus. If you are able, and if it is safe for you and others, I encourage you to step outside often. Obviously, please only be outside in a manner that keep you and others safe, but even it it is just a few feet from your door, you will likely see the emergence of life as it is "resurrecting" all around us. With virus news, anxiety, and fear surrounding us constantly it is easy to let our view of reality become one of death. However, underneath the cacophony of voices shouting warnings and fear, Earth is shouting "life" right now in many miraculous ways.
Breathe in the scent of Spring life. Breath deeply, all the way to the bottom of your lungs. Breath fully, slowly, and many times before returning inside your four walls. Perhaps the scent of new grass, budding flowers, evergreen needles, or tilled earth will bless you with the ancient memory of life emerging again from ground that was hardened and seemingly dead.
Gaze at a bright green bud, a bird that has revisited your home this season, or a small plant beginning its journey toward sun. Don't just notice quickly, but really gaze. Let these emerging forms of life remind you that you too are an emerged form of beautiful life and that God's good Spirit and the presence of Christ runs through your being and is emerging even in this time of mystery and fear. God will always be seen and has not been hidden. Christ's beauty and redemptive power is displayed throughout the world. Pause to see it often and every day. We need Spring to speak loudly and clearly to our soul in this season of struggle.
I'd like to share this blessing that I wrote which was inspired by Spring.
Spring Blessing
As the tight mesh which has
surrounded the heart of crocus
for a dark season
Loosens and reaches for sun, air,
sky and bee.
As the royal purple tissue of
seed becoming petal
becoming voice of praise
and beauty
So may your heart be loosened
and en-spirited
after silent, folded days
May you warm to the Sun as
the Sun meets your Life
—Kirk Webb
Director, The Celtic Center